I have tried not to get a solicitor involved with my case due to the costs involved, but although I wish the above would take me to Court they are not doing so, they do not answer letters and are now telephoning my Husbands place of work to find his Work Mobile Tel No. His response to their calls were for them to write only.Is this now time to contact a Solicitor and if so can anybody recommend an experienced one in this field in the Essex Area.

-- Joan Miller (joan.miller1@btinternet.com), February 17, 2001

Answers

Try a local law centre first

citi bank m/s claims were assigned to PSPC - you will prob find the assignment does not allow them to bring an action after 6 years - defective deed-

there usual solic chivers eastern brown will back down eventually

if you feel you are being harrassed then try s.40 Administration Justice Act 1970 - makes it a crime to harrass any debtor -max £5k fine or prison??

good luck

-- ahmad butt (ahmadbutt@talk21.com), February 17, 2001.

This is personal advice which is all based on my own opinions which you should only consider or use at your peril.

Citibank -------- Citibank is an interesting company and I've worked for them for many years at quite a senior level. Citibank has cut it's operational staff to the very bone, and then they have reduced it by 10% every year for the past five years. The merger with Travellers did nothing to help this since Travellers ordered yet further staff reductions.

I myself have been in dispute with Citibank over a bank loan. It is my experiance that nobody in Citibank has the time to now respond to any written communications. They are just too snowed under with work. If you try calling anybody at Citibank you stand a 99% chance of talking to a voicemail.

I telling you all this to explain why they want to keep communications to the telephone level, they just cant handle long letters which require detailed replies. They are too busy and too overworked.

My advice; Send them a long letter every couple of days, at least once a week, and demand responses (be niice) on all issues. If they fail to respond on any issue then halt communications and force them to back up to respond to your questions.

Stick at it and they will give up in time. Don't be unreasonable or they will simply go legal. Just keep asking sensible long questions and appear to be trying to reach a solution. Make them a reasonable offer and they will prob accept it just to close the problem and not reply to all your letters.

Get your husband to say that he cant discuss your problems with Citibank since this would be a violation of the Data Protection Act. Back this up with a letter (a long one of course) stating that your husband is not authorised to discuss your issues with Citibank, then they are not even allowed to call him. If they do call him again then register an assessment request concerning violations of your rights under the DPA with the Data Protection Commissioners (free) and copy the letter to Citibank, they just hate that, 999 on a scale of up to 10 I can assure you. Title of assessemnt request; "Continuing violations of my rights under the DPA concerning illegal attempts to discuss my personal details with another person after I have specfically written and required Citibank not to discuss my details with anubody else". Supply copies of all your long letters and copies of the Citibank replies.

Solicitors ---------- My opinion based on recent experiances are that they are mostly not very good. I'd personally love to meet a risk taker who is also a solicitor, I think its an extinct breed.

If you want to know the best one in your area call or visit the local CAB and ask them. They know who is good and who is rubbish in the area. Explain your case and they should point you in the right direction. A couple of hours spent using a site like the Home Repo will cost you less and you will get good advice.

I'd advise you you bone up on the site and then maybe balance this with some a advice from a CAB recomended solicitor.

-- anon (i.hate.abbey.national@another.com), February 17, 2001.

Joan,

All I know about Citibank is what's on this site and the fact that Citibank were referred to in a Mail on Sunday investigation into mortgage shortfall, under the campaign heading 'Call Off The Mortgage Hounds'. A couple, and I quote from the Mail on Sunday,

"were hit by the recession and forced to put their home into voluntary repossession in 1990. The lender was Citibank. At the time, their house in Worthing, West Sussex, was valued at £65,000 and they offered to sell it themselves. Sue says: 'Citibank told us not to worry as there was equity in the property. So we just handed over the keys and walked away.' It turned out that Citibank sold the house three months later for £38,000. Four-and-a-half years later, it began chasing the couple for the £17,000 shortfall. Sue ... says, 'We didn't even find out about the debt from Citibank. A debt collecting agency started chasing us and we were so frightened that we immediately started repaying £30 a month.' However, convinced that Citibank had undersold their property, the couple have stopped repayments. Citibank was not available for comment."

By the way, anyone in a similar position in that they have been scared or possisbly even duped by any lender into starting 'repayments' should read this web site, under 'Repossession': ' I think I have admitted liability'.

-- Eleanor Scott (eleanor.scott@btinternet.com), February 19, 2001.